1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to digital data storage, and more particularly, to operation of a hard disk drive in a mobile device to optimize power usage.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A handheld mobile device has limited battery capacity and power consumption of each component within the device may be of critical concern. A hard disk drive provides digital data storage on a magnetic media of a rotating disk. A spindle motor rotates the disk at a predetermined rate during access to the disk. The power consumption of the spindle motor may be reduced by “spinning down” the disk between disk accesses thus allowing removal of a power consuming control current to the spindle motor. However, spinning down the disk affects the response time of the disk drive to disk commands and may involve a power consumption penalty associated with “spinning up” the disk drive.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a technique for operating a disk drive in a mobile device to optimize power usage. The present invention satisfies these needs.